Finally

After literally a month of trying to and only encountering problems, delays, and missing parts, I have measured for pushrods for the Chevelle’s new engine.

Illustration for article titled Finally
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First, the rocker studs were missing. Then, they were the wrong ones. After that, they were too long where they thread into the head. Then the water jacket turned out to be full of chips from decking the block, which found their way into the everything. Having torn the entire engine back down to re-wash everything, it’s back to where it was prior to the ‘chip incident’ and the rocker studs have been turned down by a tenth of an inch so they no longer bottom out in the heads.

I spent some time today mocking the head up yet again, and much to my surprise was actually able to measure for the pushrods; it looks like 8.050" will be right, though an 8" or 8.100" would be passable. I have pictures of each and figured I might as well get another opinion on them Monday before committing to 8.050.

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If things go well I should finish buttoning up the short block in the next couple days; need to install the timing cover and set the cam button/endplay, install the oil pump (I already checked pickup/pan clearance), and bolt up the oil pan. If things go really well (uncommon for this project) then I should have pushrods in a few days and be able to button up the long block by this time next week. We’ll see.